Billy Ray Smith Jr., the former San Diego Chargers star who became a familiar voice and face around San Diego, died on Wednesday, July 29, at age 64.
His death closes the book on a life that moved easily between football, television and charity. Smith was selected fifth overall by the San Diego Chargers in the 1983 NFL Draft and spent his entire NFL career in San Diego, where he wore number 54 and earned team MVP honors. He later became a San Diego radio staple on Scott and B.R., worked network television broadcasts of college and professional football and remained a fixture at ABC 10News throughout his broadcasting career.
Before the Chargers, Smith was a standout at Plano Senior High School in Texas, where he helped the team win a Texas Class 4A state championship. He went on to the University of Arkansas and became a two-time unanimous All-American, the kind of résumé that made him one of the most recognizable players to come out of his era.
But football was only part of the story. Smith helped create Bates Street with several teammates, an after-school program for local kids that he and other Chargers players helped fund for years. He also devoted himself to dozens of charities across San Diego and co-founded the Great Friends Foundation, which helped raise millions of dollars for local military families.
That public life came into sharp focus in the words of Kimberly Hunt, who said he never said no and described his generosity of spirit. The two met during a United Cerebral Palsy telethon, married in 1990 and welcomed their daughter, Savannah, two years later. In early July, the couple was named the Nice Guys of the Year, with the 46th annual gala set for October.
The family released a statement Wednesday afternoon, but it did not include the cause of death, leaving that question unanswered even as the tributes add up around a man who was never just a former player. For San Diego, Smith was a Charger, a broadcaster and a civic presence all at once, and those roles are the ones his city will remember first.
